


A Black Tie Affair

by Sheeana



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: F/M, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Holidays, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2012-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 23:46:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheeana/pseuds/Sheeana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Kate had to pick one person to accompany her to a formal reception, it wouldn't be Tommy. Unfortunately, Tommy's the one with the power to phase through walls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Black Tie Affair

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chell-surname-redacted (failsafe)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/gifts).



> Theoretically, if this happened (which it obviously did not), it took place sometime after Family Matters and sometime before Children's Crusade.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this :P

"I swear, Tommy, if you don't stop-"

"Stop what? You said it was cool when I did that."

"Not _now_ ," Kate hissed. She plastered a bright smile on her face as one of the more prominent businessmen at the holiday reception drifted past them with his wife on his arm. "And stop playing with your tie," she said quietly, out of the corner of her mouth. "No one does that."

Tommy reached out and plucked an hors d'oeuvre from a passing platter. He popped the olive on the end of the toothpick into his mouth and sucked on it loudly. Eating like that in the tuxedo she'd bought for him, he looked ridiculous.

"I don't get why you're fussing. I blend right in," he said.

"Like Hulkling at a lingerie party, maybe."

"You're just jealous you can't pull this off with this much style."

What Kate wanted right now was to put her head in her hands and beg for someone to get her out of this mess, but she needed to keep a smile on her face while they searched for their target. She should have gone with Billy's offer to come with her. Or Eli's. Or Cassie's. Or really anyone else other than Tommy, except that everyone agreed that phasing through walls was probably useful to catch a thief in a hotel.

So she couldn't plead for a way out. She had to make the best of it. "I'm not jealous at all," she said, looping her arm through his. She took the skirt of her deep plum-colored satin gown in her hand and guided him through the throngs of people, before he could snatch a glass of champagne from a server and get them kicked out for underage drinking.

"Sure you are. That her?" Tommy asked. He nodded in the direction of a laughing middle-aged woman, maybe forty-five, surrounded by a group of older men. All they knew was that the person they were here to find was a woman, and that she was planning on stealing information about a theoretical power source from one of the guest rooms - supposedly something dangerous. If only Captain America had believed them, she wouldn't need to be here at all. So really, this was Captain America's fault.

"Don't think so. Her, maybe." She nodded towards another woman, alone, in a shockingly pink cocktail dress. 

"Ugh. You have taste. Her, not so much."

"I'm not sure if I should be flattered or insulted."

"I aim to please. Her?" 

"No. Too old. ... Unless she hired someone else."

Another server passed, this time with a plate of tiny quiche. Tommy snatched one of those, too, and then another after he ate the first one.

"You're gonna make yourself sick," Kate said, shaking her head.

"Nah. I gotta psych myself up."

They moved, slowly, closer and closer to the edge of the room. Kate smiled prettily and greeted anyone who paid any attention to them. Tommy was too busy sampling every kind of food in the room.

Once they were out of the ballroom, they stepped away from each other faster than the speed of sound - in Tommy's case, almost (but thankfully not quite) literally. He watched the entrance while she slipped into a closet and retrieved the black bag Eli had planted earlier. Then, after a furtive glance left and right, they slipped into the service elevator and rode it to the top floor. From there, it was only a few steps to the stairwell, and then the roof.

The night was cold, and it was snowing, but thankfully Kate's preparations took even less time than she'd anticipated. Everything they needed was in the bag, and she was silently grateful to Eli for remembering to include enough carabiners. She finished securing anchor and her harness, and then made sure he was strapped in well enough that he wouldn't fall to his death. Billy probably wouldn't like it if she got his brother killed.

"Ready?" she asked, finally, peering down at the courtyard and the streets far below them.

Tommy flashed her a grin. "I was born ready."

"You've been waiting a long time to say that, haven't you," Kate muttered, while she slung one leg off the ledge.

"You have _no idea_."

-

Normally Kate was good at rappelling. Normally she wasn't wearing a heavy satin gown, though, and normally she didn't have a teenage boy dangling at her side. And it wasn't like Tommy was bad at it. He wasn't afraid. If anything, he was enjoying it too much, and he could never resist bothering her at every opportunity.

"It's cold out here. Why couldn't I just blow up the door?"

"Because we're trying _not_ to be seen," Kate said, rolling her eyes. She adjusted the device she'd placed on the window to silently drill a perfect circular hole that she could push inwards to enter the hotel room. "Just be quiet and let me finish."

"But we've been here for _at least_ five minutes." Only Tommy would think five minutes was such an unbelievably long time that it needed to be accompanied by that much whining.

"Maybe if you stopped complaining for five seconds."

"Maybe if you stopped kicking me every time you moved-"

"Shh!"

Great. The men in the room were looking through the window now. For three seconds, they didn't react - probably because they weren't used to seeing teenagers in full formal attire dangling off the side of a high-rise. Not many people were, Kate thought ruefully.

Three seconds were all Kate and Tommy needed. With all her strength, Kate pushed them off the side of the building. As they came swinging back towards it, Tommy used his knee to break the glass at the pressure point. Not as subtle as Kate would have liked, but they got the job done. She unhooked them from the climbing rope as they sailed through the air, and they landed on their feet inside the hotel room.

Kate took out one of them with a well-placed kick to the back of his knee, followed by a blow to the back of his neck. When she whirled around to face the next, she watched him crumple to the floor with a surprised look on his face - and Tommy skidded to a stop behind him. The other three already lay on the ground, groaning or unconscious.

"Maybe you are useful for something after all," she said.

"You're welcome, sweetheart," Tommy said, tipping her off as if he was wearing a hat. Then he turned around to survey the room, and gave a kick to one of the groaning guards on the floor. "Where's the safe?"

"Over here."

Tommy followed her to the corner. Without wasting a second, he thrust his hand through the metal exterior, past the electronic lock, and right into the safe itself. His brow furrowed and he made a face, and then he withdrew a thick manilla envelope. They rushed to the bed together, and he dumped the contents out onto the tasteless floral comforter.

"... Here," Kate said, fishing the disc out of the pile of documents.

"There a computer here?"

She took it to the desk, where the guest had very thoughtfully left his laptop. "Give me a few minutes to upload it and send it to Billy. Watch the door." Usually Tommy bristled when she tried to order him around, but right now he obeyed. Maybe she should start believing in holiday miracles after all.

"Done. Now we should-" She yelped as Tommy used his power to blow up the disk in her hand. One of the shards narrowly missed her forehead. "What did you do that for? That was worth-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now they can't use it anyway."

"That was the only copy!"

"No, now we have the only copy. D'you really think they were gonna use it for a "clean energy project"? You do _know_ what people do with this kinda stuff, right?"

And the worst thing was that he was right. If being a Young Avenger had taught Kate anything, it was that no one who kept the single copy of the information on their potentially dangerous invention in a locked safe in a fancy hotel was up to any good.

"... Fine. But we should go now," she said, already hooking herself back into the line at the window, tugging on it to make sure it was still secure. When she was done, she hooked Tommy in too. "Ready?"

"I was b-"

"Shut up and come on."

Just before she pushed off from the wall, the door behind them was thrown open and the woman in a hot pink cocktail dress burst into the room, holding what looked like a stun gun. At least, Kate hoped it was a stun gun. She wasn't going to stay to find out, though.

"Stop!" shouted the woman, but Kate and Tommy were already zipping down the side of the building, Tommy whooping loudly in her ear and holding onto her waist.

It was a long way down from the seventeenth floor, but Kate managed to slow them at just the right speed so they hit they ground without injuries.

If only they'd escaped undetected, they might have gotten away without damage to the expensive tuxedo, but no such luck. They turned around to find five security guards waiting for them.

"Maybe you should've shut up when I told you to," Kate muttered from the side of her mouth.

"Maybe," Tommy said. Then he was throwing her over his shoulder and they were moving faster than Kate had ever moved before. The wind whipped through her hair as he sprinted around the corner, over a low-lying wall, through a courtyard garden, and then finally came skidding to a stop - right in front of the pool's outdoor hot tub. He managed to shove her aside, but his foot caught on a patch of ice and he tumbled over right into the water.

"Fuck me," Kate heard him say with a groan, when she'd picked herself up off the ground and dusted the snow off her dress.

"Tommy," she said, laughing helplessly. She helped him up out of the water as quickly as she could. When she saw the result - him standing there, dripping from head to toe, with murder on his face, she could only laugh harder. "Come on, you have to get inside before you freeze."

-

"See? Just like I told you. In and out. Worked like a charm," Tommy said, when they were sitting in a coffee shop, sipping hot chocolate. His hair was still wet, but he looked a lot more comfortable in the street clothes Kate had retrieved for both of them from her car.

"Yeah. Too bad about the tux, though."

"It's not like I was gonna use it again anyway."

"Says who? If you're so great at this, maybe I'll bring you to the New Year's charity ball next month-"

"No thanks. I'll leave the fancy stuff to you."

"I don't know, Tommy," she said, with mock thoughtfulness. "Maybe you're right. You _are_ pretty good at being fancy." Oh, God. Oh, no. She was flirting with him. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. She wasn't this stupid.

"I learned from the best," Tommy said seriously, grinning at her. "Whaddya say we blow this joint and get some fresh air?"

"Sure," she said, before her brain could tell her no no _no_. This was a bad idea. This was one of the worst ideas she'd ever had.

-

"Why didn't I ever think of this before?" Tommy shouted, as he sped past Kate so fast he was nearly a blur. Super speed, it turned out, made him a natural skater. He skated in circles and figure-eights around her, even though she had no problem keeping her balance. She was glad they were alone; it would be hard to explain how Tommy managed to get from one side of the rink to the other that fast.

On his next pass, Kate reached out and caught his bare hand with her gloved fingers, and he laughed as he used his momentum to whirl her around and send her spinning. If she hadn't trained her body so well, she would have gone flying across the ice on her stomach.

Tommy came to an abrupt stop in front of her, the blades of his skate spraying powdered ice as they scratched deep into the surface. He was grinning like a madman.

"Just this once," Kate said, laughing at how unashamedly joyful he seemed, "I'll admit it: I'm jealous."

"Once is all I need, sweetheart," he shouted, and then he was off again, whooping and spinning and generally looking like even more of an idiot than usual. 

-

"That's a fake wreath. It's not even fake mistletoe. It's not even close," she said, staring up at the hideous plastic wreath attached to the streetlight pole above the spot where she'd parked her car. 

"Sure it is," Tommy said, always reluctant to budge in an argument.

"No, it's definitely not."

"Is too."

"It's not. It's not even an actual plant. It's made of plastic."

"Yeah, well. Gotta make do with what you have."

"You're-" An idiot, she was going to say, but something warm on her lips was preventing her from saying anything at all. She blinked. For some reason, it took a moment for her mind to accommodate the fact that Tommy Shepherd was kissing her.

No, she told herself. No, this was a terrible idea. This was a mistake. She was going to regret this.

She was kissing him back. 

His arms came up to encircle her waist over her coat, and she didn't push them off. He leaned his forehead against hers, and she didn't snap at him to go away. He was smiling against her mouth, and she wasn't shoving him away.

"Merry Christmas," he murmured, pulling back just enough to speak. The ice-cold tip of his nose brushed against hers and sent a shiver down her back.

What the hell, she thought. You only live once. She kissed him again.


End file.
